


As the Dust Settles

by Merfilly



Category: DCU (Novels)
Genre: Multi, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-05
Updated: 2014-06-05
Packaged: 2018-02-03 12:35:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1744817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three quick scenes set post-<i>Inheritance</i> by Devin Grayson.</p>
            </blockquote>





	As the Dust Settles

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ilyena_sylph](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilyena_sylph/gifts).



> A gift offered one day early to the person who gave me the chance I needed to find sanity, and gave me a reason to try.

It had been easy enough to find Oliver. The man never managed a decent alias that didn't trace back to Errol Flynn in some way. 'Miles Roark' was as obvious as a neon sign to anyone that knew Oliver.

Few knew him as well as the Batman of Gotham. He located the man, then assumed his alter ego to begin the true hunt.

By the time Oliver stepped out of his shower, a towel in hand for his hair, and nothing else, Bruce Wayne was sitting in a chair in the room with him. Two glasses of wine and a bottle waited with him.

"Jay—sus, Bruce!"

Bruce managed a small smile for having startled his long time friend, and eyebrow arching.

"I'd think that once dead would be enough to make you a little more aware of your surroundings," Bruce told him, sliding a glass of wine toward the edge of the table in Oliver's direction. "Dinah never did manage to teach you to be wary, did she?"

The mention of Dinah Lance, also known as Black Canary, elicited all the reaction Bruce needed to confirm his suspicions. The former lovers were not entangled at present. That removed a small percentage of the emotions behind Bruce's visit. Ollie winced, then put the towel around his waist and joined Bruce in the other chair at the table.

"I'd say I never really learned anything about or from her," Ollie admitted, accepting the drink and sipping it. "One thing I couldn't even fix this side of dead and alive again."

Bruce toyed with his own glass of wine, looking at it, but very aware of the regret in his friend's voice. "She's changed over the years since we lost you. She's well-matched currently with the tasks she's taken on."

Ollie nodded. "Her and the mysterious Oracle." He sipped some more wine, then met Bruce's eyes as if on cue. Bruce had known just when to look up, just as in the past. This little event to capture Deathstroke had put them all in sync again. "So why are you here?"

"Debating punching your lights out," Bruce said evenly. "Because I know Roy will hold back, out of fear of burning bridges, or for worry over upsetting Dinah."

"Huzzah, what?" Oliver asked him, brow scrunching together in puzzlement.

"The fact that you kept ogling Nightwing did not escape his attention. It certainly did not escape mine." Bruce let his voice drop into the most grim Bat-tone he could manage on a friend.

The moment Ollie started to smile, Bruce felt all his anger melt away. "I hoped you would," Oliver admitted. "And I'll even find some way to make it up to my boy, because yeah, that was low."

Bruce sipped his wine before he answered, realizing he had been maneuvered. Sometimes, in knowing a man, it was easy to forget that man knew you just as well.

"You wanted my attention enough to risk Roy's temper?"

Ollie nodded, still smiling. "He'll understand when I call him. Tomorrow… or tonight, if you choose to leave." 

The choice was all in Bruce's hands now… and this time, he did not let his mission get in his way. He set his wine down and stood from his chair, gathering the hem of his shirt in both hands.

By the time he had his shirt off, the towel was gone, and Oliver was intent on proving that the past could be resurrected.

* * *

Dinah was glaring at the man who had let himself into her apartment before he even got the door locked.

"Do not give me the line about 'just business'," she said hotly. "Or that it was foreign nationals, or…"

Her words fell to the side as he stepped into her space, staring down at her. "Sister… calm down. Think instead of reacting. Besides, do you really think I'd already have posted bail if my part in this was all that serious?"

She had to stop, had to think over the bits and pieces she'd gathered since she got in from Hong Kong. It… seemed off, for what she did know of him, even if they weren't really an item.

"You missed. This… okay, who is the real target?"

"Nguyen." Slade managed to say it without hissing too much.

Dinah put her deductive skills to work. "Use you to raise an alarm, get Quraci intel on things from a new angle and just happen to foil a conspiracy from a different angle. Because you know how B is about things happening in our city," she said, breathing more calmly.

"I did… though I had hoped to get away clean instead of having to forfeit my bonus in order to get the legal side cleared," Slade said easily. "Now, can I stay, or am I going to have to accept Scoops' hospitality until my flight?"

She stretched her arms up around his neck. "Tell me as much of it as you can without breaching your code, so I can protect Lian and Roy?"

"I can do that, sister," he said before kissing her soundly.

* * *

"I really ought to have decked him," Roy said, but it was without heat, since he was currently sprawled under the reason he had wanted to deck his erstwhile mentor.

Dick chuckled. "Puh-lease, it was too obvious, even for him." Dick licked along Roy's pulse in his throat. "So, you think it worked for him?"

"If you saw it a mile away, surely B did too," Roy countered, running his hands along the ass that had earned his lover the sobriquet 'Tight-wing' in certain circles.

"Maybe." Dick shrugged it away, then moved slowly against his lover. They were both close to recovered from the first round, and Dick had no intentions of letting Roy out of here without a second one.

"How long 'til Wilson's out again, you bet?"

"Don't wanna talk about him, Featherhead," Dick said, focusing on making that second round happen faster.

For once, Roy actually knew when to shut-up and go with the flow.


End file.
